CONCEPT MODEL FOR DRONE SELECTION IN SPECIFIC DISASTER CONDITIONS

Abstract. Drones come in huge variety of shapes, sizes and flight characteristics. They can fly in places where no manned aircraft flies or where a person is not desirable to be. Their ability to perform “3D” – here standing for dirty, dull and dangerous. All these properties turn them into a valuable asset into disaster responders’ toolkit. In the very first moments of disaster it becomes confusing for non-experienced person to decide, which drone to be deployed first or to what task to be assigned to. In order to perform their mission in safest and most successful way in this paper we discuss a decision-making model to aid first responders in the early stage of reaction. In particular, a performance mapping model is design as a hierarchical structure with several inputs and more than one output. Several limitations are considered as inputs. On one hand there are “external” factors briefly known a prior – disaster type (wildfire, CBRNE, flood etc.) and weather conditions (wind speed, fog, cloud cover, etc.). On other hand there is certain correlation with some “internal” characteristics such as drone type, flight performance (stall speed, turn radius, flight endurance etc.) and payload capabilities: resolution, accuracy, weight (sensor resolution, size, weight, etc.). Given this and mission type as an output from the model a specific drone and equipment is advised to the first responders. This model can be later on introduced in disaster responders training and documentation helping them to properly utilize their drone fleet, raising preparedness and by so increasing disaster management capabilities and reaction effectiveness.